The Connection between Theorisations of English as a Lingua Franca Variation and Pedagogical Practice

The potential of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) to enable successful communication is implicitly theorised in a number of ELF publications and contrasted positively against Standard English (StE). The theorisations of ELF are limited by ambiguity about the types of communication that ELF communication practices and variations away from StE enable. That difficulty is also relevant to more recent complexity theory-based theorisations of ELF and English as a Multi Lingua Franca (EMF). Although what StE is remains partly unclear and ELF is positioned in these theorisations as a substitute for StE, it also remains unclear to what extent ELF communication practices and variations can substitute use of StE. The extent of ELF variation that can occur before it obstructs communication is also unclear. Examination of these problems allows a clearer understanding of what other empirical ELF research could be useful and the extent to which ELF can be the basis for a reorganisation of the pedagogy of English as a second language.